


Inky Fragments

by Archaeological



Series: Inked on Skin [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Gen, Mostly Gen, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-17 10:59:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 10,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18963892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archaeological/pseuds/Archaeological
Summary: Companion pieces to Inked on Skin. A collection of drabbles and short one-shots, some canon to the story, some modern day AU.I'm migrating these from Tumblr for safekeeping and ease of reading. I also take suggestions, if you'd like to see something in particular!





	1. Long Ago (Child Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _1\. Where were they born? Where did they grow up? How did that impact their development? [Saki, 200 words]_

Winters in Asteria are cold, or so others say, because she hasn’t seen winter anywhere else.

She pulls a chair to the window, stacks some books on it and sits on top of them, arms on the windowsill to rest her head. The first flecks of snow drift down and she stares, transfixed, and though she wants to go outside she knows she is not allowed to, so she sighs in resignation and stays put. She’s never been one to get in trouble, anyway.

There is a group of kids playing outside. That means school is over and Fern is going to be back soon, and maybe she will teach her something new today, too. Two kids run past her window, and a third one slows his pace when he sees her out the corner of his eye.

He’s the kid from the end of the street, the one Fern always complains about. She blinks at the novelty. He sticks out his tongue and leaves with his laughing classmates. How dull.

She doesn’t know how much time she has spent in front of the window when a smiling woman knocks on the glass, and her day becomes much brighter at once.


	2. Path (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _2\. Did they choose their path in life? Are they still in their home island? Are they sailing? Why? [Saki, 222 words]_

She still wakes up in the middle of the night, sheets damp with cold sweat, and it takes her a few frantic seconds to notice the soft rocking of the submarine and remember that she isn’t in Asteria anymore.

Sometimes, when she can’t fall back asleep and the sub isn’t underwater, she goes to the upper deck and lies on the floor to watch the stars. Sometimes, if Bepo is awake doing late night work, he hangs around for a bit and she questions him about constellations and celestial bodies she can never place in the sky. When he goes back to the control room, she often wonders if she truly is of any use to the crew. She can’t navigate, she can’t fix machines, the only medicine she knows is basic first aid and her food isn’t as good as a real cook’s is.

She can draw, and that isn’t much help on the seas. It was never supposed to. She was going to make a living with art and die young and leave a stunningly pretty corpse behind, and now that her life plan has gone down the drain she feels considerably lost and useless.

She left home and all the people she cared for behind, and she doesn’t know if it was worth it. She fears she’ll never know.


	3. Training (Old Man)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _3\. What does the Golden Age of Piracy represent for them? [Old Man, 441 words]_

“What’s with that stance? Square your shoulders! Sword high!”

“But it’s so heavy!”

“If you’ve got energy to complain, you’ve got energy to swing it!”

Tsubaki groaned, frustrated, as she tried to raise the blade with all her might and hit a battered practice dummy.

The old man watched his granddaughter struggle, but he didn’t move an inch. That was how she’d get stronger. She was fifteen now, and she needed to learn to defend herself. In this age, one couldn’t expect to keep the women of the family away from danger. Boy or girl, he wasn’t in the habit of letting anyone under his care go untrained. It could have been the years with the Marines that had ingrained that in him, but it was true that the times were more dangerous than in his youth, and he had never been surrounded by the sort of people who’d rather run and hide than put up a fight.

With pirates running amok everywhere and trouble following them, he couldn’t expect to keep an eye on the kids all the time. Especially now that his little girl wasn’t a child anymore, and his other little girl had become a woman and left for a better chance at life.

He recalls like it was yesterday the first day he taught Saki how to hold a sword. He remembers even more clearly how angry she had been the first time he had tried to teach Tsubaki, two years ago.

_(“She’s still a kid, what do you think you’re doing?”_

_“She needs to know how to fight, you should know better than—”_

_“What she needs is a normal life! Don’t put her through this shit!”_

_“So she goes like her mother did? Is that what you want for her?”_

_And the girl had to shut up, because both knew that no one should have to go like Fern did.)_

He had made sure to keep their training sessions from her since that day, but they had never stopped. He was getting too old, he knew he was going to die sooner than later, and even Saki could not have honestly believed that she’d be able to keep them from danger all the time.

He understood the wish to protect their family from the harshness of life, but it was as pointless and ill-advised as it was well-intended. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as his son used to say. If the world wasn’t a safe place, he was going to make sure his grandchildren had all the tools to survive in it when he couldn’t be with them anymore.


	4. Scholar (Dubia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _6\. What would their dream job be if they had a different life? [Dubia, 383 words]_

“I got it, Ramon, I got it! I figured out the translation!” Dubia got up so fast that she knocked down her chair, and started jumping in excitement. “Daddy’s going to be so happy! I wish I could see his face when he reads the letter!”

“Do you want to take a trip to your hometown?” He joked. “Not like we can pay for it, but we can stowaway in a merchant ship.”

She ignored him, and Ramon found himself staring at the freckles on her face instead of paying attention to what she was saying. “Do you see this?” She stood on her tiptoes to put the papers inches away from his nose. “We still have so much to learn about the world! I can’t even imagine what the guys back home must be putting together. It’s so fascinating, intriguing, riveting, enthralling, exhilara—!”

“You know I can’t read a single word of that.” Ramon pushed the papers to the side and smiled at his wife. “But back to travelling, we didn’t have our honeymoon, and I heard that one of the ships in the harbor is taking passengers to the resort in—”

“Oh, shush, now is not the time!” Dubia slapped his arm with her precious papers and for a moment panicked while trying to smooth them out. Then she skipped to the cradle near the window, carelessly close to an unstable pile of old tomes, and showed the papers to the baby in it. “You do understand mommy, don’t you, my honey bunny? You are so going to read these when you grow up, and you are going to be super-duper smart like your mother and not an ignoramus like daddy-dear.” She had such a clear sing-song voice that Ramon didn’t mind much that she was calling him an idiot as long as she kept talking. The baby laughed and tried to catch the papers with a small hand. “Who’s going to be the cutest researcher in the world? Who’s going to be mommy’s little genius?”

Ramon sat on his wife’s abandoned chair and balanced on two legs as he watched her gush over their daughter. Nothing to do when she was in discovery mood. Scholars. Did he really need two of them at home?


	5. Afraid (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _1\. What’s one experience your character had that made them very afraid?_

They drag her by the neck from her bed in the middle of the night, strangers she has never seen before, but there is no doubt that these are the people her father works with and something has gone very wrong.

When she reaches the bottom of the stairs her blood runs cold, and she can’t hear what they are saying –‘ _traitor’, ‘useless’, ‘compensation’_  are the only words she registers— when she sees what she had never wanted to see again.  _This is my fault, my fault, he wouldn’t have—_

The men spit on her father’s dead body as they leave the house, her sole company the promise that they’ll be back soon.


	6. Care (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _13\. Does your character have anyone that they really care about, to the point that they would give their life for them? If so, who are they and what is your character’s relation to them? If not, do they wish they did? Is there anyone they wish they could build such a relationship with?_

When she leaves for the smuggler’s hideout with Law and Bepo, she steals one last glance at the tattoo shop next door and thinks that whatever life she has left is a fair trade for its inhabitants.

She doesn’t buy the pirates’ excuse for helping her –the captain is hiding something, she’s got enough experience to tell—, but she doesn’t care. The kids have seen enough, the old man has endured enough, and her only hope is that they never have to wake up late at night to see another family member die.


	7. Family (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _14\. Do they have someone that they consider to be a family member, even if they’re not related to your character by blood? What was one of your character’s favourite moments with them, and what makes them so special to them?_

The rumbling of the tattoo machine filled the studio while the young man gave instructions. Saki was sitting close by, very still, taking in every detail as he worked on a customer’s leg. Arthur never let anyone but his dad in the studio when he was busy, and she was going to make every minute of the lesson count.

“—remember that you don’t want to use a three to line or the smallest shake will show. Do you understand?”

Saki hummed.

“I can’t hear you!”

She spoke with reluctance. “At least a five round for lining, always.”

“Smart girl.”

Swelling with pride, she promised herself that she was going to learn and become the best tattoo artist to make sure she never disappointed him.


	8. Interesting (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _61\. What would have to be the most interesting thing about where your character lives?_

She wouldn’t admit it, not now, but the first time Saki saw the submarine she almost wished to die during surgery. She’d had enough of not being able to go anywhere when she was younger, and the thought of spending most of her time underwater in a metal box sucked the life force out of her.

Then, one day, when she’s wiping a persistent stain from a bull’s-eye, she sees a huge silhouette through it and sticks her face to the glass to watch.

She hears labored footsteps and the sound of Penguin’s cane against the floor, and she doesn’t turn to face him even after he speaks.

“Why are you smooching that porthole?”

“Haha, you’re so funny—look!”

“What’s— _wha_ —is that a sea king?”

They spend more time than is reasonable mouth breathing on the glass, staring at the monster gracefully swimming in the distance, and she hasn’t regretted her new living arrangements since then.


	9. Different (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _73\. If your character knew what they know now when they were younger would they do things in their life differently?_

When there wasn’t any more blood left to pool around her feet, she slid the sword — _his_  sword— from the bastard’s torso, wondering if she should have done this sooner, how many more lives could have been spared, and she found it mattered little to her, because those lives hadn’t been important to her and there was no point in imagining what ifs. Maybe she could not have done it alone and those pirates had been a sort of blessing, but honestly, she didn’t want to think about it.

The final result was all that she cared about, and she had what she wanted, in the end.


	10. Ocean (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _89\. Does your character like the ocean, or are they more of a land person? Perhaps they prefer specific bodies of water, like ponds and rivers, or specific locations on the land, like forests and mountains?_

She leaned against the upper deck’s railing, pensive, and the breeze that carried the smell of salt everywhere made her want to jump into the water. Could she survive the fall? It looked like it would hurt, regardless.

“I want to swim,” she complained, more to herself than anybody else. It was ironic if she stopped to think about it, but she hadn’t had a good swim in years.

Law didn’t need the power to read minds to understand the wistful look she was giving the waves below. “You’ll die if you do,” he said.

“Of course you’d know everything about it,” she snapped, embarrassed. “And I wasn’t going to.”

“Just saying, I’m not fishing you out.”

“I  _know_.”


	11. Apartment AU original prompt (Saki/Law)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _JAZZINJUKE ASKED:_  
>  *Winks my way into your inbox* Saki/Law Neighbor AU

It hasn’t been a week since Saki moved to her new apartment when water stops running while she does the dishes, so she goes to ask the guy next door (the one who has all the neighbors gossiping that he may be a serial killer but is actually the only person in the whole building who’s held the door open for her when she’s carrying groceries,  _screw those grannies_ ), if he has the same problem.

She doesn’t have to wait much after ringing the doorbell for Sketchy Neighbor to open the door with bit of foam stuck on his hair and wearing only a towel around his waist; Saki wants to crawl under the doormat and try to figure out when exactly her life has become a sitcom, and she doesn’t know where to ogle – _look_ , she means  _look_!— (and where did all those tattoos come from and why does she want to stare so much?) when she says, “I—um—sorry, I was wondering if you still had—but no, I see you don’t—I should—”

“I’ve run out of water, too,” he says, looking amused, and she mutters a quick thank you and flees back to her apartment.


	12. Winter Tale (Dubia/Ramon)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The story of a girl from Ohara and a young Marine._

The first time Ramon meets Dubia it’s on one of his free days, and she catches his eye as she walks near a row of trees with her nose buried in a thick book, with her white dress and boots and platinum blond hair, and she steps into a tree well that had formed overnight by the snowfall.

When it sinks in his mind that what he’s seen isn’t a mirage, he runs as fast as he can to help her out of the hole.

* * *

The second time Ramon sees her, a week later, she sees him back and waves with a smile that makes his heart skip a beat. He says hi and shyly scurries away, and his colleagues poke fun at him for the rest of the week.

* * *

The third time he sees her a month has gone by, and she’s reading a letter, sitting on a small stone bench on the waterfront, wrapped inside a thick coat and a white scarf that covers half of her face, but he knows it’s her because the hair and the freckles sprinkled around her icy blue eyes are unmistakable.

He finds the courage to walk up to her and say hi, and she remembers him, and tells him her name and he learns that she’s traveling the Grand Line with a group of friends.

* * *

The fourth time he doesn’t see her, but she does, and she wants to talk to him until she realizes that he’s wearing a Marine uniform, so she slinks away before he can notice her.

* * *

The fifth time it’s midnight and she’s a drunken mess and won’t tell him what she is celebrating, but he has to talk her down from going skinny dipping in the village’s fountain, and two hours later they’re sitting on the ground and she’s leaning against him, talking about how she misses her home and that it’s a shame that he’s a Marine, because she doesn’t like the Navy but she really likes him.

* * *

The sixth time she apologizes profusely and very eloquently for having made a fool of herself the other day, but he says that it was the most fun he’s had in a while, and though he still thinks that she is way, way out of the league of an oaf like him, she asks her out for dinner.

She says yes.

* * *

He loses count of the times that follow, and he only knows that he’s smitten when he finds himself fumbling for any excuse to go to the village and he really, really doesn’t mind when she tells him why she doesn’t like Marines.

* * *

It’s been a year since the first time and the group she’s traveling with is ready to move on, but he isn’t, and then she comes up to him to tell him she thinks she’s pregnant and wants to keep the child, and Ramon panics because she’s going away and he’s going to lose her and the baby, because there’s no way that she is going to choose him over her dreams and her friends. So he does what any desperate man would do, and already knowing the answer, he asks her to marry him.

She smiles and tackles him with a hug, and it turns out that he hadn’t known the answer, after all.

* * *

The last day they see each other in the village is the first one of their lives together, and since it’s taken him some time to sort out the paperwork for his retirement, she’s been waiting there, alone, after her friends left.

The baby is born while they’re still on their way to North Blue, ironically enough on a Navy ship, and she has Dubia’s freckles and steals the heart of every sailor on board.

When they get to Asteria, the Old Man and Arthur and his fiancée are waiting at the docks, and Arthur ignores him completely and goes straight to the girls,  _some friend he is_ , but when he sees him making faces at the baby and Dubia laughing uncontrollably at some bad joke, he knows he’s done something right with his life.


	13. Embarrassing (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _8\. That one embarrassing thing they’d rather die than admit. [Saki, 300 words]_

Once she was done with the dishes, Saki took a kitchen rag to wipe the mess table. Penguin and Shachi had left already, and any sane person had to wonder if a new submarine really needed so much maintenance. It seemed obvious to her that they just wanted an excuse to carry on a love affair in the boiler room. Perhaps it was a little too obvious to be true, all things considered, but a girl had to find ways to entertain herself when couldn’t go anywhere.

On the other hand, Law and Bepo were still in their seats, going over a map, and the captain was taking notes of something his friend was saying.

Dark green eyes flicked to Law’s writing hand, to the sinewy tendons on its back and the long fingers, where the inked letters inevitably caught her attention, and she thought with distaste what a waste it all was because he had  _such beautiful hands_.

…And she had  _not_  just thought that. What was wrong with her!?

Bepo loked up. “Do you need something?” He had noticed her staring in their direction, but she prayed that not at which precise spot and  _please God if you exist give me a break already_.

Saki could feel her heart pounding in her throat. “Nothing! I was going to clean the table, but I can do it later!”

“We can go—” Law began to offer, but she cut him short.

“No, no, please don’t move! I have so many other things to do!” She said with too much energy, forced a laugh, and hurried to the galley so she could disappear from their view.

Man and bear shared a silent look of concern before going back to their work.


	14. Apartment AU - Game Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Bepo is probably a white Pyrenean Mastiff and Shachi can’t win a game to save his life._
> 
>  
> 
> _Inspired by @jazzinjuke's tag:_
> 
>  
> 
> _#you went the flirty neighbor way but i think it’d be interesting to see what kind of neighbor war/rivalry these two would be capable of :3_

It begins around 1:00 AM with thin walls and a card game that gets out of hand.

There’s a knock on Law’s door and Bepo’s the first to get to it and paw at the wood with excitement. When Law opens it, Saki’s there, wearing a fluffy dressing gown and slippers, a curious contrast to the death glare she’s aiming at him.

“Sorry.” The killing intent doesn’t seem to wane. He has the grace to try harder. “We’ll be quieter.”

She’s about to reply when someone speaks from the living room.

“Oi, who’s there?”

“Just the neighbor.”

“What’s that  _‘just’_ for _?_ ”

“Hey, is that a woman?” The voice asks.

“Yes, but—”

“Cool! Can she play poker?”

She can. She meets Shachi and Penguin, Law’s friends, who explain that they are one player short because Bepo doesn’t have opposable thumbs.

“This guy’s so boring to play with,” Shachi says. “He’s always winning.”

“You’d think he hides cards up his sleeve, but nope. We’ve checked.”

“Is that so,” she says with disinterest.

The night goes, indeed, in favor of Law.

* * *

It continues a week later, at 12:47 AM. She’s wearing the same fluffy dressing gown and slippers, and this time she greets Law with, “I’m going to set your apartment on fire.”

“We share a wall.”

“Hey, is that your neighbor? Let her in!”

Law still won that night, but it was a closer call.

* * *

Next week, 1:23 AM.

“You are doing this on purpose.”

“Don’t try to pretend that you sleep. The circles under your eyes don’t lie.”

“At least I try, unlike someone.”

“You’re still wearing street clothes.”

“Saki, is that you? We have beer!”

* * *

Three weeks later, 2:29 AM.

“Fuck it, this is impossible. I thought I’d have a chance with you here, but you just hog all the wins he doesn’t take.”

Saki raises an eyebrow at Shachi. “ _You_  are complaining? Let Penguin do it, at least he isn’t cheating.”

Penguin flares up. “You’re cheating?”

“I am not!”

“Yes, you are,” Saki says. “You are literally hiding aces up your sleeves.”

Shachi turns beet red under everybody else’s stares.

“Prove it.”

“Should I check the deck for extras?” Penguin says.

“Well, okay, I did it!” Shachi throws his arms up and slams the cards on the desk. “But how did you know? I thought I hid them well.”

“Because she’s counting cards,” Law intervenes for the first time.

“You—” She starts.

“What!?”

Saki points at Law. “He’s counting cards too!”

“Am not.”

“Are too, you tap the chips in an increasing and decreasing pattern that matches—”

“While you just pile them up; so subtle.”

“You keep pushing drinks at me so I lose count.”

“Yes, and you’re trying so hard to refuse them.”

“Wha—since when—”

“Since the second night?” Law guesses.

“…I didn’t know how many decks you were using the first time,” she admits, putting down her cards.

“So you two have been cheating all this time!”

“Technically it isn’t cheating and you’re throwing off my count, so please stop slipping in new cards.”

“Screw you.”

“What I want to know is how  _you_  are adjusting the count.” She looks at Law with suspicion.

“Surgeon magic. We are at plus ten, by the way.”

“I thought it was plus six. Shachi, this is all your fault.”

Penguin, who has spent the entire discussion going through the deck, suddenly says, “There’s something different on the back of these cards.”

Shachi gapes. “…You marked the entire deck!”

Law kicks back on his chair and smirks. “Now why would I do that if I’m counting?”

“RUUUDE!”

“DOUBLE CHEATER!”

“Stick to one method, jerk.”

Bepo bumps the table, alarmed by the ruckus, and throws his owner off balance and to the floor. He quickly tries to undo his mistake by licking Law’s face.

Three faces stare at him from above with satisfied smiles.

“You’re a bunch of bastards.” Penguin gets up and goes to the kitchen, but not before sentencing, “And we’re playing Trivial Pursuit next week.”


	15. Heat (Saki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _31\. Does your OC prefer to sleep in a warm or cool area?_

In the wee hours of the morning, Saki’s sprawled face down under the desk of the bridge so the air from the rotating fan hits her, but not directly, and also because simply dropping on the floor without cover goes against all her acquired survival instincts. Right in the middle of the room, Bepo, bless his nonexistent fear of random attackers, is also lying on the floor and sleeping soundly, because the place where they are docked isn’t a summer island as much as hell disguised as an inoffensive strip of land.

She’s beginning to slip into an uncomfortable slumber when somebody enters the room and, by the sound of it, doesn’t go further than the door.

“What are you doing under the desk?” It seems to be Law. Possibly. In her current state, it may well be a sleep-induced hallucination. In the best of cases, she is already sleeping and this is a dream. A boring one, but at least it means she’s finally resting.

“I’m hot,” she complains against the metal below. It isn’t cold anymore. She wants to cry.

“No one’s said the contrary.”

“What?”

“What?”

“…Let me sleep.”

As the door clicks shut, she rolls over, hoping for miraculous hail outside. Cursed Grand Line weather never going the way you want it to.


	16. Neighbor AU - No pets allowed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Suggested by @jazzinjuke: “no pets allowed in the building, can I maybe hide my pet at your place when the landlord visits” (~1.300 words)_

Monday, 7:18 AM. Saki stumbles out to the balcony, saucepan in hand, to water the ribbon plant that for a week she has forgotten she has. Something big and white is in her way. She blinks several times, trying to focus her vision until a polar bear blinks back.

While she sleepily considers if she should fear for her safety, she hears the door of the nearest balcony slide open, and out comes Sketchy Neighbor, looking frantically for something, until his eyes settle on the immaculate white creature, first, and on a saucepan-carrying, dressing-gown wearing woman second.

“Bepo! How the hell did you get there?”

Bepo wags his fluffy tail in what he believes is a perfectly serviceable reply.

Saki decides that she’s entirely too decaffeinated to deal with what’s going on (not to mention that the last time he saw Mister-Not-Serial-Killer he was mostly naked, but who cares about being awkward so early), so she leans over Bepo to pour the water on the plant and goes back inside without a word.

“H-hey! Wait!”

* * *

“I didn’t know you had a bear,” Saki says as she stifles a yawn, sitting on the sofa.

“I’ve had Bepo for years. And he’s a dog, not a bear.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“You aren’t the first that’s asked.”

She makes a noncommittal noise as she reaches to pet Bepo. “Does the landlord know?”

“Hm? Why would he have to?” He asks, looking elsewhere and faking disinterest.

“Didn’t he tell you pets are forbidden in the building?”

“Did he? I forgot.”

“No wonder all the grannies hate you.”

Apparently, as they had come back home from Bepo’s early morning walk, the dog had decided to keep exploring in his overexcited state and had somehow jumped from one balcony to another.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Law says as he tries to drag Bepo by the orange collar to no avail.

Bepo rests his front legs on Saki’s lap and she scratches his head.  _So cute_. “Wish all early morning inconveniences were like this.”

“You wouldn’t say that if he were shedding. Bepo,  _move_.”

“What’s the hurry?”

“I need to be at the hospital in…” Law checks his wristwatch, “three minutes ago,” he frowns.

“Leave Bepo here. He’s going to be alone in the apartment, isn’t he?”

Law hesitates before answering. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“’Course. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere today.”

“Thank you, Saki-ya.” Then he looks at the dog very seriously and says, “and you better behave.”

Bepo barks and jumps at him.

* * *

Bepo has been staying for a week at Saki’s apartment while Law’s working when said man appears on her doorstep and says with urgency, “Saki-ya, I need to ask you a favor.”

She leans against the doorframe. “Good night to you too.”

He looks furtively over his shoulder, as if expecting someone would make a surprise appearance from the stairs. “Can we talk inside?”

She moves to let him pass and closes the door behind him. “What’s the matter?”

“I got a call from the landlord today. He says he’s paying me a visit tomorrow.”

Saki raises an eyebrow. “Why? Aren’t you up to date with your bills?”

“It’s not that. He says he has received complaints from the neighbors.”

“Have they found proof at last that you’re a serial killer!?”

“This isn’t funny. Apparently they said they hear noises late at night—”

“Such baseless accusations.”

Law shoots a glare that completely rolls off her. “Well, yes, they also told him I have a dog.”

That  _does_  offend Saki. “They didn’t dare.”

“They did.”

“Fuck those grannies.”

“Fuck them indeed,” Law agrees, pleased with her outburst. “Can you please hide Bepo in your apartment when he visits?”

“Of course I can. And I’m going to put hot glue in their locks when I find out who called the landlord.”

“I didn’t expect you to come to my defense like that.”

“Nobody messes with Bepo on my watch.”

“Glad to see our priorities align.”

* * *

Law has ventilated the apartment and vacuumed it in its entirety three times by the time Mr. Sengoku, the retired Police Chief turned landlord, rings his doorbell. Law lets him in with a polite handshake and a forced smile plastered on his face.

When Sengoku sits on the sofa and asks about the long, white hairs on a nearby cushion, Law says that an albino friend slept over last night.

* * *

Saki curses under her breath when the doorbell rings and she herds Bepo to the bedroom before heading to the door.

The landlord is there, a friendly expression on his face as he greets her.

“Good afternoon, Miss Saki. I haven’t heard of you since you moved to the apartment. Have you settled in already? Is everything all right?”

“Perfectly fine, Mr. Sengoku. Can I do anything for you?”

“Ah, I hope I’m not bothering you. You see,” he lowers his voice, “a few concerned neighbors have called me about the tenant next door.”

Saki acts surprised and lowers her voice as well. “Really? Who?”

“The old couple on the third floor and Mrs. Margaret on the fifth floor have been the last, but I’ve been hearing complaints from other people too.”

Damn, that is a lot of hot glue. She doesn’t think she has enough sticks home.

“What has he done?”

“They say he comes to the apartment very late at night, brings shady people home that make lot of noise, and that he has a dog.”

Saki lets out a quiet laugh that she hopes doesn’t sound too forced. “He is a doctor, of course he has to work until late.”

“Yes, I know, that isn’t the part that concerns me. Have you… seen anything suspicious going on? Strange people, maybe?”

“He has friends. Nice people, I’ve seen them a few times. Nothing of note.”

“An albino friend, perhaps?”

“Uh…” She has no clue where that question has come from. “Yeah.”

“No ruckus?”

“Never.”  She wonders how many karma points she’s losing for this.

“And about the dog…”

“Nonsense.”

As if to agree with her statement, a bark can be heard at that exact moment. Sengoku narrows his eyes and looks over her shoulder and into the apartment.

“What was that?”

“The TV. I was watching Lassie.”

“Oh, they don’t make series like those anymore, do they?” The man smiles fondly, suspicion overwritten by nostalgia.

Saki nods nervously and feels like her face is going to crack is she has to keep smiling any longer. “Back to what I was saying, I’d know if there was a dog living on the other side of the wall.”

“That’s what I thought,” he says, shaking his head. “You know how gossiping old ladies can be. They wouldn’t leave me alone until I came to talk with the boy. Very polite, a bit sketchy looking though, but Rocinante vouched for him when he rented the apartment and I trust his judgement.”

“I assure you there’s nothing to worry about, Mr. Sengoku.”

“That’s good to hear. Well, I won’t take any more of your time. Have a nice day.”

“You too. Goodbye!”

She closes the door immediately, leaning back against it and looking around for any sign of Bepo. He hasn’t come out to the living room. Good.

She goes to her bedroom only to find it devoid of fluffy white bundles of joy. She looks under the bed, inside the closet and behind the nightstand for good measure, before her gaze sets on the balcony door.

That wasn’t open before.

She steps out, but there’s only the ribbon plant there, although a few leaves have been munched on. Saki’s about to glance at Law’s balcony, suspecting what has happened, when she hears a sliding door opening and Law coming out. “Bepo, how the hell—!?”

She goes back inside, making sure to close the balcony door and thinking that a coffee sounds like a great idea.


	17. Uni AU (Saki/Law)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _LYELLEA ASKED:_  
>  saki/law uni au 8)

Law’s standing by the door, waiting for Shachi’s swollen eye to go down to a reasonable size, when two girls burst into the room –the roommates at the end of the hall, civil engineering and art students; he knows them well because they also spend an inordinate amount of time in the infirmary—, the taller one with an injured hand and the other pressing a towel against it to slow down the hemorrhage.

“It’s the third marquetry accident this month,” she says as the nurse pushes her aside to take over, then she takes a glance at Shachi and looks at Law with sympathy, “you?”

“Second brawl of the week,” Law offers as an explanation, and though he thinks of asking if she’s free on Sunday, he gets a hold of himself and ends up suggesting the same as always, “want to grab a coffee?”


	18. Tattoo shop AU (Saki/Law)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _OHSEE ASKED:_  
>  How about Saki & Law, modern day tattoo shop co-owners AU?

“You should get another tattoo, it’s good publicity for us,“ Law tells Saki from the back shop as she’s balancing the register at the end of the day.

"I’ve been thinking about it,” she says absently, eyes never leaving the money, — _thirty-three, eight, forty-three_ , she hates counting small coins—, “but I’m not sure about the placement.”

Next thing she knows, she has lost count of the change when she feels lips pressing against the side of her neck, and Law says, inches away from her ear, “What about here?”


	19. Neighbor AU - Cooking lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“everyday your smoke alarm goes off and i being your irritated and considerate neighbour am going to give you personal lessons au” (570 words)_

It is indecently early in the morning and Saki is out on her balcony to water the plant, fuzzy slippers and all, when the adjacent door opens.

“Hey. You.” She points at Law with the saucepan she’s carrying. “I wanted to talk to you.” Silence. “ _Hey_ , don’t ignore me.”

Law turns to Saki feigning disinterest. “Me?”

“Yes, you, the only other person in sight. What’s going on with your fire alarm?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“It goes off at least once every time you have a free day.”

He’s looking anywhere but at her. “Are you keeping track of my schedule?”

“You drop Bepo here when you aren’t home.”

Law takes a passing glance at his watch and says in a monotone, “Ah, look how late it is, I should get going.”

“You have a night shift, what the—hey, don’t go back inside.  _HEY_.”

* * *

She rings the bell to Law’s apartment for five minutes straight, first once like a normal person, then two, then a really long time, then to the beat of  _We Will Rock You_ , and eventually tapping Morse code starting from SOS to more colorful messages. All the while, Bepo’s inside, barking and jumping against the wood.

The door finally opens when she’s spelling out the last letter of  _‘you are an ass_ ,’ and something in Law’s face makes her hopeful that he understood every bit of it.

“ _What?_ ”

“Fix your damn fire alarm,” she says.

“My fire alarm is fine.”

“Like hell it is, it goes off every time you cook.”

“It’s  _fine_.”

“You want me to believe that—” Realization hits Saki like her last’s commission’s missed deadline. “Are you telling me you burn your food every time you cook?”

“No,” he replies a bit too fast to be believable, and slams the door in her face.

Once the situation sinks in, she spends another five minutes tapping offers of cooking lessons on the doorbell.

* * *

Day one of the cooking lessons starts with a practical demonstration from Law of why he can’t be let near a stove in a discouraging maneuver that does not work. The alarm, on the other hand, does.

Day two’s result is a sticky goo stuck to the bottom of a frying pan where scrambled eggs should have been.

Day three sees them having to physically restrain Bepo before he jumps at a charred chicken breast.

(Unbeknownst to them, Bepo ends up getting close enough to smell the food and decides that he’ll pass.)

Day four brings the return of the sticky goo, this time condemning a cooking pot to a ricey demise and filling the entire apartment with vapor.

_(“How have you survived all these years?” Saki asks, genuinely amazed, when they are in the balcony trying to breathe._

_“I’m resilient.”)_

When day five comes and Law gets back from work, he goes to Saki’s apartment to pick up Bepo and is greeted with a filled Tupperware container to the face.

“Don’t touch the stove again.  _Ever_ ,” Saki warns him, deadly serious.

“What’s with the change of strategy?”

“I don’t fight lost battles.”

He takes the food and the dog.

“Does that mean you’re going to do this every day?”

“Why not? If you die inside your apartment the stench will get to mine. Goodnight, Bepo.”

The door closes, and just to be a jerk, Law spends the next five minutes tapping  _‘told you so’_  on the doorbell.


	20. Hiding (Saki/Law)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _9\. We’re hiding from the authorities and it’s very close quarters in here, I can feel your body against mine._
> 
>  
> 
> _AU, not modern day._

The last two days had consisted of nothing but one poor decision after another. Raiding that patrol ship, docking so near to a Navy base, picking a fight with that crew of wimps – she swears she doesn’t remember a single face from bounty posters, and she is good at remembering, thank you very much – and making a scene at the nightclub, as if Jean Bart’s size wasn’t enough to attract the attention of everybody within a mile, and before they knew the rival crew was flying through the clubs’ windows and the Marines on the island were onto them and everybody had split up to escape and she and Law had ended up squeezing into a tiny dark alley that smelled like sorrow and regret, as many are wont to do late at night. That had possibly been the poorest decision of all, with his body pressed against hers and an arm wrapped around her from when he had pushed her into the alley and his breath unintentionally fanning against her ear. Meanwhile, the soldiers ran down the street ignoring their hiding spot, because nobody who valued their bodily integrity would have chosen to step in there.

Law shifted to look better at what was going on outside the alley, and the contact sent tingles down Saki’s spine.  _Definitely_  the poorest decision of the week.

“You could have just taken them out,” she whispered, trying to be annoyed so she couldn’t think about other things, like the tattooed hand running down her arm and stopping right about where her waist was and that maybe,  _maybe_ , someday he’d let her fix, and thank goodness that he was an easy person to get annoyed at.

She saw him smirk from the corner of her eye, and he said, “I will if I have to, but where would the fun be in that?”

“You think this is fun?” And she meant the alley, with its sticky ground and grimy walls and puddles of best left unknown origin, but she was slightly out of breath and kind of smirking as well, so when she spoke it came out very different, and she wasn’t sure she even minded.

His chest rumbled against hers as he said, “You don’t?” and leaned even closer, and when he saw she made no attempt to get away, the hand on her arm slipped to her torso and his fingers began to trace a line following the waistband of her pants.

Saki stood on her tiptoes, bodies brushing smoothly, and the dim yellow glow of the streetlights made it impossible to tear her eyes away from his, golden and wanting and half lidded, as she closed the inches between their lips, because she figured one more poor decision to add to the record wouldn’t make a difference anymore and the night was still young and not completely lost.


	21. Apartment AU - Potluck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Saki/Law of course. Neighbourhood AU pls, potluck night or smthng_

“So why are we here again?”

Saki and Law stood awkwardly with a tuna empanada tray and a pack of beer on the communal patio where the building’s yearly potluck party was being held, courtesy of Mr. Sengoku, and Saki had spent the last three weeks trying to convince Law to go so he didn’t get on the landlord’s bad side,  _‘c’mon, there’s free food, it can’t be that bad.’_

She changed her tune as soon as they arrived, when that granny, the one who lived directly downstairs, tugged on another’s sleeve to catch her attention while judging every inch of inked, pierced, and generally exposed skin, and whispered, “Look, those are the two living in sin.”


	22. Mythical AU (Saki/Law)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _saki/law modern mythical AU_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trivia fact: One of the ways to write Saki's name is the character for "luck."

“I am Fortune,” she said, smiling insensitively and extending a hand to him after he jumped from a window and fell in a dumpster trying to shake off the police agents, “and I think you called?”

He hadn’t expected a personification of luck to look so normal and have so many ear piercings and atrocious clothing sense, but to be fair he hadn’t expected to meet one either, and he was sure he had hit his head on the fall and was now hallucinating while his pursuers caught up to him.

He supposed he had nothing to lose speaking to a figment of his imagination, so he blurted out, “I’ve been looking for you all my life,” and then her smile faltered, but her hand was warmer and her grip stronger as she brought a finger to her lips to hush him, and motioned for him to follow into an alley.


	23. Apartment AU - Visitors 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Family members with too much free time (~800 words, apartment AU)_

Summer. The season of the year where Saki is unable to leave the vicinity of a fan without longing for a swift death has come, but commission deadlines are unforgiving and so is yesterday’s unpaid electricity bill.

Bepo is taking as much space of the floor as he’s physically capable of, the poor thing, she can’t imagine what it must be like to live with that sort of fur. But when she asked Law why he didn’t cut his hair, he said that Bepo refused any attempts at it. He didn’t deem necessary to elaborate, and she didn’t ask because imagining was more fun.

What matters is that the temperature has become so unbearable that he only twitches, barely, when there’s a knock on the door.

She scratches behind an ear. He whines. She wonders who could be looking for her at this hour and hopes that the tank top and booty shorts are enough to scandalize any annoying grannies that may be interrupting her.

As soon as she opens the door, she’s tackled to the ground by two kids, who immediately detach themselves from her to gasp for air and cry, “It’s hot!”

* * *

“You didn’t tell us you had a dog!” Tsubaki exclaims, crouched down and looking at Bepo’s face with stars in her eyes.

Take is playing with Bepo’s tail, or Bepo is playing with Take by moving it left and right. Saki can’t tell.

“He’s not my dog. He’s…” A friend’s? Neighbor’s? “…an acquaintance’s.”

“So. Fluffy.”

“And soft,” Take said.

“What are you doing here?”

“We came to visit, of course.” Tsubaki huffs. “We never see you home anymore.”

She ungracefully dodges the accusation. “And what about school?”

“Over since last week. Today mom gave us our backpacks and train tickets.”

“…And Arthur?”

“Dad?”

The sibling’s eyes meet, then turn to Saki and shrug in perfect synchrony.

“Great.”

“Can we keep him? Pretty please?”

“He  _isn’t_  mine.”

The cellphone on the desk vibrates.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Tsubaki asks, hopeful.

Saki takes the call and turns on the speaker. Arthur’s voice comes out in full force.

“ _SAKI, DON’T PANIC OKAY, I’VE GOT EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE KIDS?!_ ”

* * *

Sister and brother have fallen asleep on the couch and Law is late to pick up his dog. Bepo paces up and down the living room in a state of alert that isn’t normal in him.

“What’s wrong, bud—”

A fire alarm  _blares_.

“This fucker,” she curses in disbelief, and the kids wake up and look around disoriented. “You wait here,” and she makes a beeline for the door.

She opens it at the best moment to see something that looks like a flaming black vulture yelling and running out of Law’s apartment and onto the landing, while said man throws a bucket of water that douses the entire heap of feathers and the other neighbor’s front door. Just something else to add to the pile.

“Damn it, Cora-san, I told you not to touch the stove!”

* * *

“Now I see who you get it from.”

Law ignores the jibe. “I saw it coming. I thought it would be best if Bepo didn’t have to breathe the smoke.”

“No problem.  _He_  doesn’t bother me.”

Law side-eyes her hard. She doesn’t care.

Currently midnight, two twenty-something year olds sit on a couch while two kids climb a man over 9 feet tall and a giant dog runs laps around them, in the middle of Saki’s living room, while the toxic fumes in the adjacent apartment blow over.

She hopes her ribbon plant is doing all right.

“…So.” If awkward was an invisible person, it’d be sitting right between them and throwing its arms over their shoulders in the most undesired three-way hug in recorded history. “Who are they?”

“My siblings.”

“Really? You don’t look anything alike.”

She makes a noncommittal noise. “Sort of siblings.”

“I see.”

Bepo barks. The granny that lives below knocks on the floor in a universal gesture of protest. Saki knocks back with a heel, loudly, in a just as universal ‘fuck you.’

“Who’s he?”

“My dad.”

Saki stares at Law, then at the man, up and down, several times, then back at Law with the incredulity of a person who has listened too many times to aunt Fern boast about how she got her teaching license after cutting class for one third of high school and most of college.

“…Sort of dad.”

“I… see. Summer vacation?”

“Summer vacation.”

The granny knocks again.

“Bepo. Bark louder.”

Such an obedient dog.

Saki pulls out her phone and asks while she searches for a number, “Do you like pineapple on pizza?”

“No.”

“Get out of my home; the dog can stay.”

“Do you have any coffee?”

She hesitates. “Will you set my kitchen on fire if I tell you to prepare it yourself?”

“Probably.” No, but he doesn’t want to move.

Saki gets up, throws the cellphone back, not-so-accidentally aiming for Law’s face, and he catches it in time because he’s genetically coded to be annoying.

Cora-san turns to her when he sees her heading to the kitchen. He has a child sitting on his head and a teen hanging from his right arm. “Can I help you?” He offers with a grin.

“ _NO!_ ”

Pizza arrives half an hour later without pineapple, but it has onions and anchovies.


	24. Apartment AU - Visitors 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Saki/Law neighbor!AU–“look, my family is coming to visit me, and my uncle would really like to know that my neighbor is not a serial killer, so if you happen to see them, please be normal, or better yet, just don’t come out of your home for a week please.”_

Saki rings on the doorbell like a normal person, no violent pokes, no irritating Morse code messages, and Law opens it convinced that it must be the delivery man.

“Good morning, Law,” she says with suspicious civility.

He checks a mental list of all the things he could have possibly done to merit the visit. He hasn’t triggered the fire alarm even once this month, there hasn’t been any late night gambling in weeks, and Bepo hasn’t chewed on her balcony plant and thrown up again, as far as he knows.

He arches his eyebrows as a reply.

“I need to ask you a favor.”

Sadly, his eyebrows can’t go up higher.

“You see, my family is visiting next week…”

“No,” he says, and tries to close the door, but Saki stops it with a foot.

“You haven’t even heard what I want!”

“I can tell I’m not going to like it by how polite you’re trying to act.”

“Look, you can stop trying to crush my foot and listen, or we can do this the hard way and be tapping on your doorbell for half an hour. You choose.”

He stops trying to shut the door, but he doesn’t open it again. “Talk.”

“Can you not show your face out around here next week? Pretty please?”

“Why? And what does that have to do with your family?”

Saki thinks about what she’s going to say for a brief moment, decides there’s no way to make it sound less offensive. “The kids have told their parents about the flaming ten feet tall man with the feathers and the make-up and you and your tattoos and now their parents are coming to visit because they want to meet my neighbors and I really think you should take a 168-hour shift at the hospital just to be sure you don’t accidentally meet because no offense, honestly, but you don’t exactly look like the next door guy a concerned uncle wants for their young and lovely niece.”

She puts on her best smile, the one that gets her free samples from shops. He blinks twice with a blank expression, pushes her back, and closes the door.

“Laaaaaaw,” she whines from the landing, and she hears Bepo whine behind the door as well, but Law is a merciless man who cares not for the suffering of woman nor dog.

* * *

“The little guy is still alive!” Fern shouts from the balcony. “Dubia bet that it’d be a goner in two weeks.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Saki says.

“Hey, I bet on a full month.”

“You’ve got a nice flat, Saki,” Arthur interrupts them, coming out from the room where she works. “I can’t believe you got it this cheap.”

“It’s kind of old,” she says, and Bepo gets up from her side and walks up to him, wagging his tail happily. “And the elevator breaks down every month and the grannies downstairs are harpies.”

Arthur reaches down to pet him. He looks like he’d be wagging his tail if he had one, too. “You said his owner is the guy next door?”

“Yeah. He’s barely home.”

“But he’ll come for him at night, right?”

“I don’t think so. He’s busy. Really busy. He’s on duty a lot of days. And nights. Like tonight.”

Fern walks inside in time to hear her. “What a shame. Tsubaki and Take said his dad is a funny guy.”

“Yeah, we were curious to meet him. And they said he had a few tattoos. You think I could give him a business card?”

“I don’t think he’s the kind of guy you’d like to work with. He’s difficult.”

Arthur complains, but he doesn’t insist.

At some point in the evening she thinks she hears the rattle of keys outside, but it’s gone as soon as it happens, and Bepo behaves well enough to not give away the arrival of his owner, and eventually Fern and Arthur go to the hotel room they have booked two streets away form Saki’s block.

The first day is a success.

* * *

The second day is a disaster. Against Saki’s generous and well-meaning advice, Law doesn’t move for a full week to the hospital, and selfishly decides that he’ll sleep at home and have one, maybe even two days off.

On second thought, Saki believes this shouldn’t be much of a problem, because he doesn’t go out much even when he doesn’t have to work. He likely spends the day making up for the hours of lost sleep during the week.

Evidently, she is proved wrong when they run into him at the entrance of the building, because he has, also selfishly, decided that Bepo needs a mid-afternoon walk.

Even if they didn’t have to take the elevator to the same floor, the presence of Bepo gives away who he is from the start.

There’s an uncomfortable moment in which Fern’s eyebrows go gradually up and her lips curve into a sly smile, Arthur grins widely, and Law’s eyes go from Arthur, to his wife, who’s checking him out without a hint of discretion, to Saki, who judging by her disgusted face, has abandoned all hope and is just resigned to what is to come. He doesn’t know what to make of it, but it doesn’t show on the outside.

Arthur extends a hand to Law, introduces himself and Fern, and Law takes Arthur’s hand, because why not.

Saki takes a few small steps back into the building, counting the seconds for her uncle’s reaction.

“ _Dude_ ,” his smile falls and is replaced by a look of utter horror, “what the hell have you done to your hands?”


	25. Beach day AU (Saki/Felicia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Day at the beach again, but just the two of them this time? Uh, uni students AU, OOO or the neighbor AU?!?_

It’s early March, and Saki is already in the water as Felicia jumps in, and when she emerges, undignified yelp prompted by the cold water notwithstanding, she looks like one of those models you see in perfume ads, because everybody knows the best way to sell things to women is to advertise them with highly attractive, half-naked ladies.

Well, Saki could attest to the effectiveness of the tactic. She’d consider buying the entire shop’s supply if it was Felicia doing the advertising.

“Damn, girl,” she says, because she’s a loudmouth and every opportunity compliment a beautiful girl is a good one.

“It’s freezing!” Felicia yells, hugging herself and jumping nonstop to keep the cold away.

Saki laughs at her. “You southerners…”

“How dare you, you northern hick!”

“I’m not a hick! I was the smart one in town!”

“The smartest thing you’ve done since you moved to the dorm is hide Marina’s marquetry saws!”

Saki chooses that critical moment to snort, and she’s left hacking salt water when a traitorous wave hits them.

Felicia, arms still wrapped around herself, shakes her head, and her curls spread droplets everywhere. “How did I let you convince me to do this? I’m done!”

Saki watches her friend as she begins to head to the shore, and she shouts, half in jest and half testing her luck, “Stay with me and I’ll get you warm!” as salt water still drips from her nose.

Felicia turns around with twisted lips and a skeptical look in her eyes, but soon she breaks into a sly smirk. “I’ll take you up on that!”

“Eh?” Is the only thing Saki manages to say, out of smartass comments, as she lets Felicia swim up to her and plant a kiss on her lips, and after that she’s too busy and too short of breath to waste it with a ‘ _holy shit, it worked.’_


	26. Sixteen years ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the past from Dubia's POV. First posted on FF.net as an extra chapter in the main story.

"I'm home, sweetie!" A rambunctious woman barged inside the small two-story building, carrying a straw basket filled to the brim with food. "Sweetie!" She repeated when no one replied. The main room was empty, so she left the basket on the table and went upstairs. "Mom's baaaack!" She looked in the bedrooms, the bathroom and the built-in wardrobe. Nothing.

Sighing dramatically, she went back downstairs and headed for the tattoo parlor next home, wavy blond hair fluttering behind her. The doorbell chimed with a crystal-clear sound as she pushed the door, and she dragged some of the snow outside inside the shop.

"Swee—Oh, there you are! Are you drawing?"

A little girl with mousy brown hair sat on a chair in the waiting room. She only looked up for a second, nodded and went back to her sketchbook. She had it propped up on her legs, and her feet were on the seat.

"Can I seeeee?"

"I haven't finished yet."

"Don't be like that, let mom see!"

The child shrugged and turned the sketchbook towards her mother.

"Aw, that's so—ARTHUR, WHY IS MY DAUGHTER DRAWING COMMISSIONS AGAIN?"

Alerted by the yelling, a young man with tightly curled hair came into the room, sporting a winning smile.

"Yo, Dubia! Back from the market already?"

"Don't 'yo!' me, you…" She snatched the sketchbook, eliciting a yelp from the girl, and held it up for him to see. "…vile, immoral, licentious…"

"Whoa, Saki, that's really good!" Arthur said, ignoring Dubia, and a grin spread on the girls face. "How did you get this angle right?"

"I saw it in one of those magazines you used to have under your bed before you married aunt Fern."

"…Ahaha…" Arthur's smile froze and he cast a nervous glance at the woman to his side, but fortunately she was too wrapped up in her tirade to pay attention.

"…ill-bred, indecorous, malodorous—"

"Have you been reading the thesaurus again, Du?"

"That was only once! And don't try to change the subject; why was my daughter drawing a naked lady with horns—"

"And a snake around her neck," said Arthur, satisfaction visible on his face.

"On a panther," Saki added.

Dubia was speechless for a moment. "Arthur!"

"Because she's good! And I mean really, really good. Can't you see it? It's like when she sees something she burns it in her mind and can put it down on paper like it's nothing. She's a natural! You've got a genius at home! Can I use this for the customer, Saki?" He shot the last question before Dubia had time to register his rant to avoid more complaints.

"Sure! Can I watch while you do it?"

"You know it! Know what, from now on I can teach you. How does that sound?"

Dubia watched, defeated, as her daughter beamed. She had hoped for something more intellectual as Saki's future profession, and she was little and still could change her mind, but…

As the woman leafed through the sketchbook, she couldn't deny that Arthur was right. Her girl had talent. What was the point of fighting against it? …On the other hand, this was free child labor, however she looked at it.

"Don't look at my things!"

Dubia glanced down for a moment to see Saki jumping to try to reach her sketchbook, but she held it up higher and smirked.

"Mom!"

"There, there," she said patting her daughter's head.

Just then, a customer came out from the next room and went to the counter with a curious walk. While Dubia was distracted, Saki took the chance to grab the sketchbook and run back to her seat.

"Done?" Arthur grinned at the man. "How was it?"

The customer merely nodded very slowly. He was white as a sheet, but Arthur laughed.

"Yeah, tends to happen with those places." He laughed, then yelled over his shoulder, "Hey, old man, how much is this one?"

A man in his sixties, with a missing arm and built like a wrestler, appeared from the same room the customer had come from. "Ten thousand," he said with undeniable satisfaction.

"Roger."

Arthur rang it up, and the customer paid and left still walking funny and in silence. The door was about to close when something came flying in, narrowly missing the man and hitting Dubia right on the middle of her forehead.

"SCORE!" Someone cheered outside.

"Who—"

_Splat._  Another snowball collided with her face.

"WOOHOO!"

A young woman with straight, long black hair, entered the shop, skipping happily. She was noticeably pregnant, but it didn't seem to have much effect on her movements. "Hiya, Du!"

"You're the best," Arthur said.

"I know I am! Saki, let's play outside! Where's your coat?"

"Fern, should you be moving so much?" Dubia asked distractedly, shaking snowflakes from her hair.

"Don't worry, if I go into labor Saki can call for help! Right?"

Saki made an affirmative noise from her spot.

"Careful, little girl, she'll turn you into a pancake if she falls on you," the old man said.

Arthur laughed at his wife's expense as she stuck out her tongue to him. "I don't think she could, the kid scurries away like mouse."

"I'll do my best! C'mon, Saki, we can give the kids down the street what they deserve. They were being little shits today at school."

"Is a teacher supposed to talk like that?"

But Fern shrugged the comment off, helped Saki put on her scarf and bodily dragged her out the studio.

Dubia picked up once again her daughter's sketchbook and sat down, passing pages. She stopped on one full of Saki's favorite flowers. Camellias, if she remembered correctly, but Dubia had never paid much attention to plants.

"Man, I wish I had half the talent your daughter has." Arthur said. "It took me like ten more years to get that good."

"Well, you  _were_  sort slow, Arthur," the other man admitted.

Arthur made a noise of dismissal. "The thing is, she's going to be amazing when she's twenty. If she wanted—"

"We don't even know if she's going to get to ten," Dubia said softly.

Arthur's face fell, but the old man had something to say.

"Bullshit. That kid isn't going to drop dead as long as one of us is still standing."

A knot formed in Dubia's throat, and could barely get out the words. "Thanks, Andrew."

"Don't start crying now, Du," the younger man said.

"That has an easy solution," Andrew walked behind the counter, pushing his Arthur to the side, and pulled out a bottle and three glasses from under it. "A drink?"

"Are you trying to kill her?" Arthur sounding alarmed was a rare occurrence.

"Bah. West Blue ladies can hold down their alcohol like nobody. Isn't that right?"

"Damn right." Dubia walked over to them and grabbed a glass. "Pour me one."

"No, Du, seriously, that's pure poison—"

"I have a policy to never refuse a free drink."

"Arthur," Andrew said solemnly. "When did I raise you to be such a chicken?"

"I'm not—"

"Then drink up!" He sentenced, filling the three glasses to the brim.

Dubia did cry, but for an entirely different reason than before. Still, she did much better than Arthur, who had to run up to the bathroom after the second gulp.

"What a wimp," Andrew said with a fond smile. "Just like your husband."

"That's why they are friends." Dubia finished her drink with a smile and a growing sensation of heartburn.


End file.
